MLB: The Defunct Saga - San Diego Reds Updated

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The Beacons look pretty incredible. You essentially created a much better version of the Rays (with a different nickname and city). I love the color scheme and you really executed the whole idea well.

The woodmark might be my favorite part of the concept. The Columbia with the Gold above it looks great, especially on the home whites. That hats are fabulous too! I prefer this to your Braves concept. Nice work.

Oh, this is good. This is gooooood. The Beacons look fantastic; loving the primary logo.

20 hours ago, MJD7 said:

Wow is that pretty... Especially the navy alt. While I would’ve loved to see you try and do the Bees, this is a clean looking set with a one of my favorite color schemes. Great job!

16 hours ago, Paul Lucas said:

HELL. YEAH.

Thanks, guys! I really had fun making this one. It took me a while to get to the point where I thought it looked appropriate for the location and name.

17 hours ago, St Louis Cardinals said:

I like the concept. Very similar to UMass Boston.

Thanks! I had no idea about UMass Boston, but I'd like to think I made a slightly better logo than their one (with incorporating gold).

18 hours ago, tigers said:

Make this a real team someone, anyone.

Great colors, great logo, great information and uniforms.

Just one suggestion for you, did you try to put the light inside the top part of the B for the primary cap logo?

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Thanks! I tried to do that, but it looked a bit weird for my taste.

21 hours ago, NicDB said:

That Beacons concept is everything the Rays should be doing with those colors. Nice work!

13 hours ago, Cardsblues02 said:

The Beacons look pretty incredible. You essentially created a much better version of the Rays (with a different nickname and city). I love the color scheme and you really executed the whole idea well.

The woodmark might be my favorite part of the concept. The Columbia with the Gold above it looks great, especially on the home whites. That hats are fabulous too! I prefer this to your Braves concept. Nice work.

Thank you! I took a bit of inspiration from the Rays, trying to find a way to execute their whole "Ray of Light" motif in an effective way.

Anyway, onto the Houston/Milwaukee Cardinals!

HOUSTON + MILWAUKEE CARDINALS - Tax Evasion Escapades

This was one of the more surprising relocation threats I discovered in my research. While reading this excellent thread (and discussed in detail by @Gothamite), I learned that the Cardinals almost moved to either Houston or Milwaukee. Fred Saigh, the team’s owner, had to sell the team due to tax evasion charges. Groups in both Houston (the base of their AAA team, the Buffs) and Milwaukee (with Fred Miller of the eponymous beer company) had eyes on the team. Of course, Saigh wanted to keep the Cardinals in St. Louis, so he sold the team to Anheuser-Busch Inc. for less than what Fred Miller was offering.1 However, what if either deal went through and the Cardinals left St. Louis?

I figured that the team would have a similar course in their identity. The birds-on-bat would go away in 1956, only to return in 1957 and stay in place (albeit with road versions) due to team/fan uproar. However, there will be key differences in their overall visual composition.

The first set of alternates include a red top for home/road use and a navy cap with a red bill, for playing on the road against other teams with red caps (e.g., the Reds).

The throwback/fauxback alternates include a recreation of the early-mid 1940s uniforms, alongside a button-front/belted pants version of the powder blue set. I figured that Oilers nostalgia, plus the Cardinals’ 1980s success, would endear the fans to that color. I also made a “Houston” version of the 1950s-’90s birds-on-bat, for a little vintage touch.

MILWAUKEE CARDINALS

I decided to go for a decidedly more navy-centric look. Living in Milwaukee and observing the other teams in the area, navy and other shades of blue seem more fitting than a red-centric appearance. I revived the shield from my first Cardinals concept for this purpose.

The caps of these uniforms feature an “M” in the “St.L” insignia’s style, along with a navy crown and red bill. My logic dictated that the team would maintain navy-crowned caps to fit with the traditional aesthetic of Milwaukee baseball. Navy belts also appear alongside the caps. I made a “Milwaukee” wordmark for the road uniform, again to assert the new location.

The first set of alternates is a throwback to the mid-40s and a “Milwaukee-ized” powder blue set, complete with a retro wordmark logo. I figured that powder blue was a very“Milwaukee”color, so it worked as an alternate.

The red cap does appear (along with matching belts), albeit as a Sunday alternate cap and as a variant on the powder blue outfit (my reasoning: it was worn in the 1970s, yet was dumped by the turn of the 1980s, not unlike the Astros’ orange cap). It’s too good not to use somewhere.

The dugout jackets reflect the new color distributions in each location, with the Swingin’ Bird on the chest. The 1940s alternate has its own jacket.

While I’m glad the Cardinals stayed in St. Louis (as the more successful team than the dumpster fire known as the Browns), both alternatives would have been interesting to see. Heck, Milwaukee Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs might be an even better rivalry than St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs! At the very least, it’d be a revelation as to how much of the BFiB is marketing and how much of it is St. Louis itself. C+C is appreciated, as always!

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This feels sacrilegious... I can't seem to muster up any reaction other than KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! Would've served St. Louis right though, to be stuck with the Browns after they stole the original Brewers.

Still, crazy to think how close this was to actually happening. Quality work, as usual!

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This feels sacrilegious... I can't seem to muster up any reaction other than KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! Would've served St. Louis right though, to be stuck with the Browns after they stole the original Brewers.

Still, crazy to think how close this was to actually happening. Quality work, as usual!

Do Brewers fans hate the Cardinals? We barley even notice you guys up there. Its almost like sometimes the Brewers just...disappear.

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That powder blue set is one of the prettiest uniforms I’ve ever seen, especially when paired with red. I had no idea the Cardinals almost moved either, and it’s tough to imagine them anywhere but St. Louis (something looks missing without the “StL” on the cap), but these are still some great designs. Great job once again.

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As for for the Cardinals, you definitely did them justice, I just can’t believe they almost left.

Thanks! I was surprised when I heard about it during my research, given how ingrained they are within St. Louis.

On 6/9/2018 at 8:12 PM, tigers said:

Your Tertiary logos this thread have been sublime, I am really impressed with your choices.

Also I am enjoying your uniforms, you've stayed away from cluttering them. Great work love them all.

Thanks! I figured that the different tertiary logos worked with the respective color balances of each team (Houston = red, Milwaukee = navy). I figured I shouldn't go crazy with additional stripes since the minimalism of the Cardinals' design is what makes the birds-on-bat work.

On 6/10/2018 at 10:00 AM, scottyeagle said:

I hope this was intentional, because it's a great pun.

Oh, and SF, everything looks good!

On 6/10/2018 at 11:23 PM, Yee Yee Go 'Stros! said:

PROJECT 32 WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, guys!

On 6/10/2018 at 3:52 AM, NicDB said:

This feels sacrilegious... I can't seem to muster up any reaction other than KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!! Would've served St. Louis right though, to be stuck with the Browns after they stole the original Brewers.

Still, crazy to think how close this was to actually happening. Quality work, as usual!

On 6/10/2018 at 8:34 AM, Cardsblues02 said:

Do Brewers fans hate the Cardinals? We barley even notice you guys up there. Its almost like sometimes the Brewers just...disappear.

On 6/10/2018 at 9:17 AM, MBurmy said:

1982 World Series...2011 NLCS...do these answer your questions?

I'm guessing it's something like "For you, the times the Cardinals beat you in the playoffs was the most heartbreaking moment of your lives...but for us, they were just a couple days in October."

Thanks! Both felt weird to me, as the Cardinals have such a long history of beating up on the Brewers and the Astros. Also, @NicDB, you forgot the most important link of all: the BFiB twitter page. While it's not an entirely fair assessment of Cardinals fans, it is both hilarious and disturbing at times.

On 6/10/2018 at 9:35 AM, MJD7 said:

That powder blue set is one of the prettiest uniforms I’ve ever seen, especially when paired with red. I had no idea the Cardinals almost moved either, and it’s tough to imagine them anywhere but St. Louis (something looks missing without the “StL” on the cap), but these are still some great designs. Great job once again.

Thank you! I really liked the powder blues for this one, even though I'm not big into neck-to-mid calf powder blue. The cap logos, no matter how good they are, still look weird to me. It's like I'm looking at Cardinals affiliates rather than the team itself.

Do you want to know why this team moved? Well, here is the St. Louis Browns experience, as presented by the seminal Irish comedy series Father Ted:

The Browns were a largely incompetent, underfunded organization that lost any leverage they had in the market when the Busch family bought the Cardinals. They barely survived their time in St. Louis (a short recap by Hardball Times writer and fellow board member @pmoehrinhere, and a cool website designed by @STL FANATIChere) and there's no way that the city could have ever supported two teams in the long-term. However, what if the Browns had survived to the modern age? What would they look like? Well, here's the answer.

The most obvious change from the original Browns is the color scheme. Gone is orange, and in its place is red. I did this for two reasons. The first reason is that brown/orange is too associated with the other two teams named "Browns" (the team that's now the Ravens and the record book-ignoring doofuses), and I wanted the baseball Browns to carve their own aesthetic path (let's presume they added red sometime in the late-60's/early-70's). The second reason is that I wanted to try out the color scheme, as I've grown to like its application on Indians concepts and the NHL Panthers.

The (thankfully) less cluttered primary logo features fleur-de-lis sourced from the 1945-53 alternate logo (in a pattern that mimics the Île-de-France flag and heraldry, the home region of Louis IX). The bottom of the logo features a baseball with the cap logo, while the team script and a line divide the sections. It's a far cleaner design than the original concept.

The uniforms emulate the 1952-3 set, AKA "The Padres can totally do brown/white/grey" look. I tweaked the scripts to clean up inconsistent line weights, standardized the tails, and widened the letter kerning to accommodate outlines (a tip for fellow concept artists, adding outlines to scripts necessitates wider kerning). Here is a comparison. The fleur-de-lis takes the place of front numbers (now with red outline), while the tertiary and primary logos grace the sleeves of the home and road uniforms, respectively. The barberpole sock stripes give way to a white outlined in red tri-stripe design, while the red-billed hat remains. I used black cleats to enhance the "retro" aesthetic. The number font is my modified version of the UNC number font, and the NOB font is Rawlings' block (used by the Orioles and in the past by the Cardinals).

The home/road alternate is an updated take on the 1908 home uniform, with an "St.L" on the chest and the fleur-de-lis on a piped cap (a pre-1950's design element I'd like to see return). I added a bit more white into the design, for consistency's sake. The Heritage Day alternate is a brown/red fauxback to the 1944 home uniforms (with the addition of the fleur-de-lis on the cap and the modern secondary logo), one of the few bright moments in team history. I replaced the font with the new one, as I wanted more separation between the pre- and post-1950s Browns (also allowing for a straight throwback). This ties the "modern" Browns to the history of the old Browns and their sorta-funky uniforms.

The dugout jacket is much the same as their Project 32 version, albeit with the new tertiary logo on the back and new striping pattern in the trim.

I think I've improved on my previous design, while also demonstrating how the Browns could have changed up their aesthetics if they outlasted the Cardinals. C+C is appreciated, as always!

For the alternate take, let's give them a bit more of an Oriole-ish identity!

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Love the monogram and scripts for the Browns. Especially love the colors. But the gold FDL is throwing this off for me. I'd much rather see a predominantly brown FDL to match the scripts. Maybe the gold is something we'd all be used to like the Dodgers numbers, but as it is, it kind of has the sore thumb effect.

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Haha, the BFIB page LUCKILY doesn’t represent all Cardinals fans opinions. I’m not that bad, I swear. I just don’t like those Cubbies.

The Browns look pretty great. I would genuinely buy that brown cap. The overall look is very pleasing and traditional, with is exactly what the Browns would (probably) look like today. I have one gripe though, the primary logo has so much going on. From the statue to the baseball to the StL to the script and the 5 fdl. Just a lot. Maybe thats just me. Other than that, this is my favorite set.

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The Browns look gorgeous! There's just something really satisfying about that brown and red color scheme.

I agree that the primary logo is a bit too busy. There's also a lot of negative space. I wonder if you could enlarge the statue-atop-the-baseball so it's closer to the FDLs, and move the "Browns" script so that's it's within the baseball?